AP-Myanmar Opposition Speaks Out

Thursday February 25 4:35 PM ET
Myanmar Opposition Speaks Out
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's state-controlled press is spreading rumors
of mass resignations in pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the
dissident said Thursday.
Suu Kyi, head of the embattled National League for Democracy, told foreign
journalists that some resignations were forced under threat of jail and
others were fabricated and submitted by people who were not party members.
``Immense pressure is subjected on our people everywhere,'' said Suu Kyi,
winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
For several months, the media - all of which is controlled by the military
government - has been reporting the resignations of members of the NLD
across Mynamar, also known as Burma.
The propaganda war heated up last year when Suu Kyi and her colleagues
declared they were creating an alternative parliament to symbolically
represent the legislature voters elected in 1990.
The NLD won a landslide victory in those elections, but the military, which
has ruled since 1962, never allowed the legislature to meet.
The government reacted to the new moves by detaining more than 100 party
officials who were among the would-be lawmakers and reportedly tried to
coerce them to resign from the party.
The government's next move was to report the resignations of NLD members at
the grassroots level and the alleged voluntary closings of local party
offices.
Lately, the government has publicized what is alleged to be a grassroots
campaign to recall and deprive NLD victors of their seats from the 1990
election with so-called no-confidence motions.
Suu Kyi said the motions included forged signatures and party
identifications which were clearly bogus.
``You can see this is all organized by the authorities,'' Suu Kyi said. ``We
don't take these seriously at all except as to the pressure to which our
people are subjected.''